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Hello my friends. It’s Wedsnday, the humpiest of hump days, which means that it is my time to do the Graveyard Shift. I am back to rocking the old handle as the election is over and votes don’t mean shit anymore. We live in a time where everything is random and unpredictable. So that’s tonight’s topic, the randomness of life, and gaming.

The random number generator, or Random Number God as TV Tropes calls it, goes back many,many years.

It all started with dice. Dice games go back millenia. Evidence has been found of dice games in a Mesopetamian tomb dating to the 24th century BC. Casting lots is talked about in the Bible.

Proverbs 16:33New International Version (NIV)33 The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.

The Proverb says that God is the literal Random Number God. The more famous example comes from John 19:23.

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(the Roman soldiers) took His garments and made four parts, a part for each soldier, and the coat also. But the coat was seamless . . . For this reason, they said to one another, ‘Let us not tear it . . . ‘ They divided My garments among them, and they cast lots for My vesture (John 19:23 - 24)

Many have called this the first loot roll in history.

Tabletop Role Playing is where most gamers are familiar with dice. Those are the polyhedrons that can determine if your character lives or dies, is a slick talking charismatic con man or a bumbling buffon.

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Video games also use RNG and it has become a something that gamers have learned to both love and dread. World Of Warcraft is famous for its loot rolls and RNG determining what class gets what gear. It isn’t as bad now with other ways to get loot through tokens and other currencies. But back in the old days of WoW you dreaded RNG as you waited to see if after 10 tries on a boss you finally downed it, just to learn the item for your class did not drop. Another Blizzard game, Hearthstone has many cards with RNG based effects, were streamers were literally pray to RNGesus before dropping a card.

1. Have you had a moment where RNG just screwed you. It might be a bad roll, the wrong loot dropping or an effect you needed to proc that just wouldn’t.

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2. Conversely, have you ever been in a situation where the RNG came through?

I have an example of each. My current mobile addiction is the music game Love Live School Idol Festival. It’s a mobile game based on the Love Live idol franchise. You get new idols for your teams by scouting but it’s RNG based. There is a shop that sells cards but the best cards, the Ultra Rares require selling three other URs to get the seals to buy one, so most don’t do that. Instead players will scout from boxes that have either all or most of the cards in the games, or certain types, such as girls from a certain class or certain subunit. That can lead to cheers or tears, depending on how bad you wanted a certain girl from a certain set and how many gems you saved to get her. doing a 10+1 pull costs 50 gems and gems are costly, so many players farm for months to get a good amount, waiting for a certain set or certain girl to come out. For myself i’ve had good and bad experiences.

1. The Christmas set for μ’s, the first idol group, just came out on the Western World server. My best girl is Eli Ayase and she is one of the two Ultra Rare cards in this set. All the girls in this set are cute so I would have been fine with any of them. I did 6 10+1 pulls and did three Blue Ticket pulls. Blue tickets pull from every card in the game so the odds of getting the specific card or set is lower, but unlike 10+1 pulls which have a 1% chance of getting a UR, Blue Tickets have a 20% chance. Sadly, after all those pulls I only got one card from this set and it wasn’t my best girl. It wasn’t a complete loss because I got some nice cards from other sets but I was really wanting my best girl.

2. On the other hand I have had more luck with Aqours, the current group. I have gotten URs for my best girl Swimsut Hanamaru, as well as Initial Chika and Yukata Mari.

So I’ve had the RNG both bless and curse me. Do you have similar stories? If not feel free to talk about anything else you want.

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